MBB recruiting with COVID

The recruitment is on hold in the countries with strict lockdowns or the ones badly affected by the virus. However, recruiting continues for other offices with some noticeable changes in the process such as

• Majority of recruiting activities being done online
• Postponement of joining dates to a time when the situation is expected to have improved
• The interview process taking longer than otherwise

Hello!

At this point, the situation is evolving so fast that it´s difficult to predict, since the situation changes day after day.

Logic sais that, as well as clients are slowing down... so will consulting companies. This will inevitbly lead to a slow-down in hiring -but not a total freeze, as there was not a total freeze after the fall of Lehman-.

For people who are currently in the recruiting process, as per what I am seeing with my coachees, interviews are not being cancelled. They are either being posponed (with a determined date, not in an undefined way) or they are being shifted to video-conference.

Given that you are not still in the pipeline, little can be done. You can maximize your chances by getting a referral -this would at least ensure that your CV ends up in HRs desk instead of in the black hole of CVs-.

Feel free to PM me with your CV and CL for review.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi! I would definitely recommend applying through a referral these days, agree with Francesco.

Send me your CV, I'll be happy to take a look!

Best,
Daniel

(edited)

Hi Jaime,

MBB suspended recruiting in some geographies, but in others they are still recruiting. I would recommend to apply with a referral if possible, so that you can get information whether they are hiring n in your target geography.

You can find more on referrals at the following link:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/hey-everyonehope-all-is-well-3176

Best,

Francesco

Hi Anonymous,

What I see currently going on (specifically talking about McKinsey) is that many projects are slowing down and travel is reduced to the absolute bare minimum possible and in many countries not possible and not allowed anyways (even within countries..).

At the same time, some (few) projects even increase working remotely, but the total trend in this phase of high uncertainty is definitely pointing downwards.

Since recruiting activities are driven by project, for sure there will be an impact but for now we are all driving with very limited visibility.

Will they stop recruiting at all? For now I don't think so, but it depends on some facts that nobody can yet foresee!

Will the bar raise (because of potentially lower client demand and high supply on HR market)? Yes, I think so. For now that's the most likely effect for your hiring!

Hope that helps - if so, please give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!

Robert

Hi,

It highly depends on your location, company preferences, position. I can explain it in the following way:

Firms:

• MBB: less affected, interviews are still conducted, offers are issued for Q3 and Q4 2020 and Q1 2021; companies still have business and enough liquidity to survive; some offices expect to grow in terms of revenue for 2020
• Tier 2: highly affected, the general trend is that interviews are postponed, the majority of firms do not issue offers, some firms experience liquidity gaps and cut FTE or ask employees to take an unpaid leave
• BIG 4: less affected, advisory business experiences problems, but recurring revenue from Tax and Audit allows to manage through temporary uncertainty

Geographic coverage:

• USA: the strongest market for consulting, interviews are conducted, offers are issued, consulting revenues might even grow
• Europe: consulting is affected, but is expected to recover in Q3 and Q4
• CIS: consulting is affected, MBB and BIG 4 will survive, as well as Accenture, but boutiques have liquidity problems
• Asia: consulting revenues begin to recover, but Hong Kong political crisis still creates uncertainty around Financial sector and transportation (that affects consulting revenues from these industries)
• Middle East: MBB firms still conduct interviews, consulting business starts to recover slowly, low oil prices still slow down the economy
• Latin America: no info
• Australia: no info

Positions:

• Interns: affected, interns is a long term game for consulting firms (as well as a way to handle “monkey” tasks) and consulting firms at the moment are not super focuses on long term investments
• Junior and middle management: less affected, hiring is in progress across MBB and Big 4
• Principals & partners: less affected, consulting firms still look for experienced leaders

Programs:

• Summer programs: the majority of programs are cancelled, bad news
• Full time: highly depends on other factors

Career tracks:

• Generalists: generally affected as consulting firms currently have more demand towards digital and data driven projects
• Industry focused experts: depends on the industry, but oil and gas industry is affected
• Digital experts: almost not affected, high demand for digital projects and the supply of experts is weak
• Data scientists: not affected at all, consulting firms are heavily hiring data scientists

Hope this helps!

Anton

Hello Jaime,

So far consulting most of the companies are trying to move forward only with hiring process that were already started using the videocalls.
Anyway, even if a global crysis doesn't mean that you don't have projects (think about cost cutting or restructuring process and about all business plans that have to be reviewd) it's likely that they will slow down (but not freeze) the recruitments until they won't understand what is the real impact of the corona virus.

Feel free to text me for a quick review of your CV

Best,
Luca

Hi,
unfortunately, nobody now is able to predict the precise effects on each business. The 2 true facts today are that interviews are taking place regularly but online instead than face to face, and that many new consulting projects are being paused. Therefore if this lockdown continues for long it can cause a shrinking in new hires.

Best,
​Antonello